The Breakfast Price Index
What the ingredients of an ordinary breakfast actually cost right now — and how that has moved over the past year. Updated monthly from U.S. government price data.
Where prices stand, 2026-07
| Item | Price | vs a year ago | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee, ground | $9.32 | per lb | ▲ +14.6% |
| Orange juice, frozen concentrate | $4.82 | per 16oz | ▲ +7.2% |
| Milk, whole | $4.31 | per gallon | ▲ +7% |
| Bananas | $0.65 | per lb | ▼ -0.6% |
| Bread, white | $1.82 | per lb | ▼ -2.4% |
| Sugar, white | $1.02 | per lb | ▼ -2.8% |
| Cheddar cheese | $5.74 | per lb | ▼ -4.3% |
| Flour, all-purpose | $0.54 | per lb | ▼ -5.4% |
| Bacon, sliced | $6.58 | per lb | ▼ -7.2% |
| Butter, stick | $3.92 | per lb | ▼ -19.5% |
| Eggs, grade A large | $2.19 | per dozen | ▼ -42% |
| Potatoes, white | $0.94 | per lb | — |
Share this month's index
One line per item, in the order of the table above. Green means cheaper than a year ago, red means pricier. It is plain text — it carries the whole picture into a message or a post without anyone needing to click a link.
What's on special this week
A different measurement, and worth keeping straight from the one above. The index is what breakfast costs — the average price paid, published monthly. This is what breakfast is being advertised at — the feature prices in grocery-store ads, published every Friday for the week just ended. It is days old rather than months old, which is why it is here, but it answers a narrower question: what is on offer right now.
What moved
Coffee (+14.6%), Orange juice (+7.2%), Milk (+7%) are up on last year. Eggs (-42%), Butter (-19.5%), Bacon (-7.2%) are down.
Year-on-year change is the number worth watching rather than the price itself. A single month's figure tells you very little — national averages bounce around for reasons that have nothing to do with your shop, from seasonal supply to a change in which stores get surveyed. A consistent twelve-month direction is a real signal.
Where these come from
Every figure is the U.S. city average retail price published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Average Price Data series, which we read through FRED at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It is public-domain government data, collected monthly from thousands of retail outlets.
These are averages across the whole country and across all store types. They are not what you will pay. A dozen eggs in a city center convenience store and the same dozen at a warehouse club can differ by more than the twelve-month change shown above. Treat these as a direction of travel, not a shopping list.
Why we publish it
Most recipe sites that mention cost do it once, in prose, and are wrong within a year. Because this reads live data, the figures on this page and on every costed recipe move on their own — and when eggs spike, you will see it here in the same month it happens.
Browse the recipes → Recipes with enough priced ingredients show an estimated cost per serving.